Search Results for: general aviation inc

My 1956 Cessna 180, 72B, “wintered” in Piqua, Ohio, while Mark Runge worked his magic on the annual plus some spa treatments and minor cosmetic surgery (we old girls need all the help we can get). I was in no great hurry to get the airplane back since the January weather was dreadful and then […]

Now owned by Brunei-based finance house Imprimis, Piper Aircraft announced last week it was expanding its reach in the Asian region. The Vero Beach, Florida-based airframer will hire a senior leader, likely to be based in Brunei, whose duties will include promoting general aviation in the region. That entails prying away control of travel and […]

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, among others, is thankful for small favors when it comes to President Obama’s vacation week on Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. For the first time since post-9/11 temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) were instituted to protect the president, general aviation aircraft are allowed within the 10-nm inner ring […]

It seems like one of the simplest flights possible. Grab your flight bag and head off to the airport to practice some touch-and-goes. There is obviously no need for flight planning. The weather is beautiful and forecast to stay that way, so there is no need to check the weather. You are not planning to […]

Not so long ago, when using oxygen in the cockpit graduated from the nice-idea to the must-have phase, the equipment took a quantum leap forward. In case you havent looked recently, state-of-the-art oxygen gear is better than ever, so good in fact that it may be time to toss that converted medical junk and upgrade. But what to buy? If your portable system dates back to the days when Loran was the hot choice for navigation, theres no need to spring for a complete new system to benefit from the latest stuff-a cylinder is a cylinder. Instead, upgrading some basic components will make using oxygen easier and cheaper. Sister publication Aviation Consumer recently took a close look at some of the latest products from the top oxygen suppliers in general aviation. What they found was more choices in regulators, flowmeters, cannulas, masks, conservers and monitoring devices, all at competitive prices. In fact, the industry has almost reinvented itself over the last 10 or so years, due in part to advances in the medical market. Just as improvements in consumer electronics have resulted in better, more-capable avionics, those medical advances mean higher-quality and easier-to-use oxygen systems are more accessible than ever.

One of the things the FAA has done right in recent years involves charting. First, instead of standing by while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office responsible for aeronautical charts shut down its printing presses, the FAA established a new office to handle the work and took on the responsibility. Second, as electronic distribution became the norm, not the exception, the FAA made many of its products-including the all-important instrument approach procedure charts-available free of charge. The agency still has a long way to go (see the sidebar on page 10), but were all familiar with how it could be doing much, much worse. Of course, if youre flying one of the new-generation glass panels with built-in electronic charting, all this may seem like old news. And, depending on what youre flying and how, you may not have a requirement for en route charts or terminal procedures in your cockpit. Its likely you still need some kind of paper references, even if your glass panel is the latest and greatest, and even if all its costly databases are kept current. The rest of us are on the look for a simple, cost-effective solution allowing IAPs and en route charts to be displayed electronically. Sectionals, too, perhaps. The degree to which any or all of this is possible depends on how much money youre willing to throw at the problem, and with how many downsides youre willing to deal. Lets take a look why.

Hanging out for some hangar flying with some fellow pilots recently, the lies swapped were covering the spectrum, from weather dodging and electrical-system failures in IMC to cautionary tales circulated about other aviators flights with questionable fuel. But one of our little gang spent most of the session distracted from these obviously important proceedings, preparing for a flight the following morning. A relatively seasoned pilot, he largely zoned out of the session, looking at en route charts, collating his paperwork and notes, and closing out his preparations with a phone call to the destination airport-one hed never before visited. A fairly new pilot of about the same chronological age, but with a far-thinner logbook, offhandedly and inadvertently revealed an approach to planning that drew snorts of disbelief from the veterans, a tough room filled mostly with pilots who flew professionally. “You called the airport?” our middle-aged newbie taunted after the phone call ended. “Airport directories are online; Internet sites are available, along with those new sites with video-and you call?!?” Then came the big mistake. He produced his latest play-pretty, offering it up as the solution to the old pilots needs. “Heck, my handheld GPS has the entire airport directory…whaddaya want to know?”

Were going to do what?” Okay; I dont usually get quite that reaction when I discuss full aerodynamic stalls during a preflight brief with my students receiving checkouts, or flight reviews in high-performance aircraft. But you can see it in their eyes. Many pilots havent practiced full stalls since their private pilot checkride, and a large number of my students in 300-horsepower retractable singles-and especially light twins-have never stalled the airplane they currently fly. No wonder theres trepidation about a maneuver some have not flown in many years. No wonder stalls continue to take lift, and life, away. To reduce the chance a stall might go unrecognized or uncorrected, lets go back to what we learned in our early training, and build upon that knowledge to deal comfortably with what occurs beyond the first stall burble.

An existing FAA airspace working group has met and will make recommendations to improve safety within the Hudson River VFR corridor. Among possible changes, the group could recommend making it mandatory to monitor the advisory frequency and report entering and leaving the airspace. Other good practices that are now voluntary could become mandatory. Currently, a […]

Despite efforts by the National Business Aviation Association and some aircraft manufacturers, little success has been achieved in changing the public’s mind about private airplanes, especially jets. When the CEOs of the big three (well, the diminished three) automakers arrived in Washington, D.C., in three separate corporate jets to claim taxpayer bailout money, you didn’t […]